Bestridt virkelighet - En studie av makt, kunnskap og geografi i konflikt over utvikling i det sørlige Mexico

Abstract

The aim of this thesis has been to examine how the historical relation between power,knowledge and geography, that has helped shape reality in the third world through thepractice of development, has been contested by alternative visions of society. The thesis thusexplores what is the significance of different interpretations of the world. The intent has notbeen to show the error of one or the other ways of framing reality, but how they haveinformed and enabled actions and relations of power.The analysis is based on a case study of the conflict that evolved around thedevelopment project Plan Puebla Panama and its encounter with the Zapatistas construction ofautonomy in the southern part of Mexico. It can thus be seen as a conflict between tworelatively clear alternative political projects, and as a part of a larger division in the Mexicansociety regarding indigenous people, and in the world at large over neoliberalism andglobalisation. On a concrete level, the conflict over PPP in Chiapas has concerned thequestion of possible dislocation of villages in the Comprehensive Biosphere Reserve MontesAzules.I have chosen to approach this case through a discursive perspective. Conflict overdevelopment in this way does not only appear to be about land and resources, but becomesalso a question of meaning and knowledge. Discourse analysis has sometimes been criticisedfor lacking the necessary tools for concrete analysis of social and linguistic phenomenon andto be too concerned with language. I have tried to mitigate these problems by, on the onehand, focusing on the narratives told to justify the projects, and, on the other hand, to alsoconsider the material aspect of the discourses by including institutions and how discoursesproduce space through images and practices.